LAKE COUNTY — Legislators are looking to eliminate sunset dates for a state labor law exemption that allows Lake County teens to work longer hours during the pear harvest. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 319 last week, making for the bill”s third four-year extension.
SB 319 is the latest tag for a nearly 12-year-old labor law exemption that sunsets every three years. It allows 16- and 17-year-olds to work 10 hours a day up to 60 hours per week during the county”s pear harvest season, which usually begins in July and runs through Labor Day.
“It”s just a question of when,” said spokesman David Miller of Sen. Pat Wiggins” (D ? Santa Rosa) office. Wiggins introduced the bill earlier this year after visiting packing houses in Lake County last summer to observe the teen labor program. “Since it”s clearly a win-win for everybody in Lake County, and it has the support of our colleagues and the governor clearly, she doesn”t see any reason for there to continue to be sunsets. If we all agree why not make it a permanent change?”
Twenty-five percent of the 2006 pear harvest was not packed and did not get to consumers because of a labor shortage. According to a press release from Wiggins” office, the Lake County Employment Development Department (EDD) branch office called the shortage “extreme.” “The pear packing season lasts only four to six weeks and coincides with the increase in tourism, the other large labor industry in Lake County,” Wiggins said. “With both tourism and agriculture at peak activity, the available labor pool is limited.” Tini Scully, owner of Scully Packing Company in Finley, said the pear harvest was much better this year. “We had better timing and the crop came earlier,” Scully said. The teen labor program accounted for 12 percent of her work force.
“We are unique in the state of California to be able to provide this sort of jobs for teens, and we should be very proud,” Scully said. “We are still able to follow local, rural tradition to that extent and to let kids take part in the local harvest, which is deeply embedded in our culture. And at the same time they”re gainfully employed and making a positive contribution to the community and getting life experience in the bank.” In a brief synopsis Scully gave of the history of the teen labor program, she said the county is seeing its fourth and fifth generation of teens working in the pear harvest. Lake County has operated for years under a bill passed in the 1950s allowing teens to work in pear sheds. Scully said she and Chief of Police Kevin Burke, his predecessor Tom Engstrom, Sheriff Rod Mitchell and Superintendent of Schools David Geck have appeared before the legislature to advocate for its renewal in previous years.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
